Mr. Akio Morita, one of the founders of Sony Corporation said in his book "Made in Japan," that Sony creates catch words or phrases that are to be used in their advertising before they start the development of any new product. By doing this they not only develop a new product concept, but also translate it into a marketing catch message which they use within their corporation to give life and direction to a new product concept.

A good example is the phrase that they used for their new line of video cameras. While their competitors are struggling to take market share from Sony by emphasizing their technological edge, Sony simply says "Passport Size."New video camera designs must pass the "Passport Size' criteria which means that they have to be equal to or smaller than the size of a Japanese passport, which is 8.9 cm x 13.5 cm (3.5" x 5.3"). Naturally, fitting all of their new features into this small size is a real technological challenge.

Thus they have to constantly improve the integration of electronic circuitry with mechanical design. Yet, instead of talking about what a technological break through they've accomplished, they simply say "Passport Size." What a great message!We at A&D also create a design concept when we start the development of a new product series, and like Sony, our concepts breathe life into our products.

Recently we launched our new wrist type blood pressure monitor. Because it utilizes a wrist cuff instead of an arm cuff for measurement, this model needed a drastically different design and required a number of technological breakthroughs.Yet, we were still able to use the simple concept that we have been using in the development of all of our new series of blood pressure monitors since our introduction of the UA-777: "One Button Operation and Three Line Display." This concept addresses ease of use, which has become a key issue for the population.

Our design concept materializes this requirement quite effectively. I know that my parents hate to find so many buttons on the TV remote controller, and that the cyclic double or triple displays are a headache to anyone.When our blood pressure monitors are viewed as a series, they stand out. With just a glance you can tell that they are A&D's when "One Button Operation and Three Line Display" are clearly displayed on the box or point of sale display. Our corporate image is there with the best functionality any customer wants to have...ease of use.The fact that we have begun seeing some competitors introducing products with one button operation or three line display's is quite a compliment, but they can't use the same catch words. If we keep saying "One Button Operation and Three Line Display," it will be come the passport to A&D's success, the passport to increasing business for our distributors, and the passport to fast, easy and efficient health care for our customers. This is what we are always striving to accomplish!

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